The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors, and more particularly, to connector assemblies that mate with card edge modules.
With the ongoing trend toward smaller, faster, and higher performance electrical components such as processors used in computers, routers, switches, and the like, it has become increasingly important for the electrical interfaces along the electrical paths to also operate at higher frequencies and at higher densities with increased throughput. For example, performance demands for video, voice and data drive input and output speeds of connectors within Such systems to increasingly faster levels. In one known approach for mating a card edge module with a circuit board, a card edge connector is mounted to a surface of the circuit board and the card edge module is loaded into the card edge connector. The card edge module is received into the card edge connector such that the card edge module extends above the circuit board in a direction approximately perpendicular to the circuit board.
Some known card edge connectors suffer from several drawbacks. For example, some known card edge connectors have problems operating at the higher performance levels of current systems. For example, known card edge connectors have limits to high speed electrical performance due to increased crosstalk, noise persistence, electrical impedance, and electrical skew of the card edge connectors when the card edge connectors are used to communicate relatively higher frequencies or higher signal densities. Additionally, the mating positions of some known card edge connectors block or significantly impede airflow above the circuit board. These card edge connectors receive card edge modules in such a way that the card edge modules extend above the circuit board. Given the planar shape of the card edge modules, the card edge modules may significantly block or impede airflow above the circuit board. As electrical systems that include the card edge connectors operate at higher frequencies and at higher densities with increased throughput, the heat dissipated by the system and the card edge connectors may increase. The need to adequately cool the systems and card edge connectors relies on the ability of air to flow over the circuit boards in the systems and to which the card edge connectors are mounted. As more card edge modules are located above the circuit boards, less air can flow over the circuit boards to cool the systems and the card edge connectors.
Thus, a need exists for a connector that permits the communication of data at higher frequencies and at higher densities with increased throughput using a card edge module. Moreover, a need exists for a connector that receives a card edge module without significantly blocking or impeding the flow of air through the system that includes the connector.